Author : Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows

To,
The Reader of this Review

Date  : 5th June 2019

Dear reader,
Please be warned that there are some spoilers ahead.
That out of the way, I wish to share with you how I felt upon completing this book, an epistolary, and I hope you will not mind the manner in which this review is presented. Reader, please believe me when I say this book found me rather than my seeking it. A dear friend first sent me a link to the trailer for the Netflix movie version late last year and at the time, I remember being charmed by the trailer, although , it quickly slipped my mind. Early this year, someone at my book club meeting mentioned in passing that they’d watched the movie and that it was actually derived from a book and I remember feeling surprised but again, I paid it no further heed and got on with my life. It was only two weeks ago when I was listening to a podcast that one of the speakers spoke about how she’d stopped referring to her Book Club as such and now referred to it as a “Literary Society” after being influenced and enamoured by the book. By now I was very intrigued and on my very next visit to Blossoms, a lovely bookstore here in Bangalore where I reside, I picked up “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” and began reading it the very same day.

And I was hooked. 

My dear reader, I tore through the book as though gripped by a monster who craves nothing else but devour page after page of content. At first, Juliet Ashton, who’s something of a protagonist, I will not lie, struck me as something of a bland character, someone who needed crutches upon which to stand; Sidney Stark and his sister Sophie Strachan being the crutches. Her story begins with her bemoaning the lack of a subject about which to write a book. And as fate would have it, a letter drops onto her lap, sent to her by one Mr. Dawsey Adams of Guernsey, an island in the English Channels. He seeks nothing but to thank the previous owner of a book he possesses – Essays of Elia – and to know more about the author of the book, Charles Lamb. It is in this letter that he also mentions the existence of the literary club that he’s a  founding member of, on Guernsey. An intrigued Juliet writes back to him and informs him of an avenue where he can obtain a copy of the biography of Charles Lamb and this is where the tale picks up steam.

In the meantime, Juliet is also the recipient of a large and incessant amount of flowers from what is revealed to be a wealthy American publisher and an eventual courter of Juliet, Markham V. Reynolds, Jr. What follows is story of collaboration of Juliet with a host of Guernsey inhabitants and members of the Literary Society which seems more tightly knit than that can be said for blood-related families today. And in them, Juliet found more than just a topic for a book. She found friends, some who eventually became family, I suppose. I loved most of the characters , Reader – the supportive Sophie, the feisty Isola, the quiet Dawsey, the capricious Sidney , the troubled Remy and most of all, the invisible yet amazing Elizabeth. Elizabeth was the founder of the Society, dear Reader and she, while never featured in the book as a character with a voice was one of the strongest characters written in a story. The reason I say this is because she’s shown to have had a personality of selflessness. When she quick-wittedly thought of announcing to a German soldier that her group that was outdoors after curfew was in fact a literary society, when she got romantically involved with Christian Hellman, in spite of his German alliance, recognising him for the good man he was, when she slapped Adelaide Addison for being horrid to the children at Guernsey , and when she, with no concern for her own life, stood up for a fellow woman being tortured at the concentration camp she was held captive at. I love the authors for being so brilliant in creating this strong character.I found myself thinking about the unfairness meted to her and I remember my jaw clenching when I realised that she never had the life she deserved. But then I remembered she was simply a character in a book. I smiled to myself at the realisation of the effect the authors had had on me.

Well done.

Over time, and with the passing of the story it seemed to me that I might have judged Juliet Ashton’s character prematurely and somewhat harshly, for she matured. She learnt to have a spine of her own and recognised Mark Reynolds for the bully he was and sent him packing on his way when he proposed marriage to her. She came to be a voice for the people of Guernsey and a provider of more than just communication from London and the world outside Guernsey. She adopted Kit, Elizabeth’s daughter and this is one of the things that ingratiated me most to her. And she, like Elizabeth didn’t hesitate once she was sure of the man she wished to marry and spend her life with, and seeked him out. 

Is there anything I didn’t like about the book? Well, Sidney’s character seemed a little off-putting at times and Mark was absolutely despicable. But I suppose they were integral to the whole thing, so I shall harp upon them no further. 

All in all, I say it again, Reader. I loved this book. It made me feel ..warm. I felt like I was travelling with Juliet every step of the way and I guess that’s how Mary Ann Shaffer and her niece, Annie Barrows intended it. And I urge you to read it as well. 🙂  

Yours,
Abhiram

Subjective Rating: 5.0/5.0.